


I need a hero

by MarcellaEReeves



Series: Fragments [5]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: 5+1 Things, Canon Compliant, Hunk is the only reasonable character, M/M, POV Lance (Voltron), Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Pre-Kerberos Mission, it's background sheith, just so no one says I'm misleading them, shiro and keith from Lance's perspective
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-27
Updated: 2018-03-27
Packaged: 2019-04-13 12:20:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,604
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14112216
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MarcellaEReeves/pseuds/MarcellaEReeves
Summary: Five times Shiro was Lance's hero, and one time he wasn't.Or, my take on 5+1





	I need a hero

The first time Lance had seen Shirogane, he’d been sitting by the ocean with piles of university prospectus stacked on the table of his family’s restaurant. Determined to shortlist his application to one of them, he’d seen a prospectus for the Galaxy Garrison. It was interesting, a chance to be an interplanetary hero. Though the thought of having to fight against space piracy seemed like something his mother would pull his ear over, not wanting her baby boy getting involved in anything too dangerous. And the uniforms were hideous.   
  
On the other hand… there was a surprising amount of attractive women at the Galaxy Garrison, and this one guy, Takashi Shirogane, who seemed to be some kind of poster child with a huge list of accomplishments that all sounded very exciting and difficult.  
  
Actually, the more he thought about it, the more he liked the idea. A fighter pilot, like the one in the prospectus. This guy was everything he wanted to be, a successful fighter pilot, responsible for freeing a whole station from pirates. Handsome, firm rugged jawline and dark eyes, and an easy confidence. Definitely comfortable in his own skin… and some other people’s too if Lance was reading it right. He’d have no problem wooing women, he’d even have to beat them off him with a stick!  
  
Yes, he could see himself becoming a fighter pilot, zooming through space, rescuing people, coming back at the end of the day to bag the girl. It was any man’s dream!  
  
So thank you, Takashi Shirogane, for the inspiration.

—

The second time Lance had been studying in the library and shooting glares at mullet boy when he’d overheard the sounds of girls giggling. Almost like a spider sense, he peeked out from behind a bookshelf and, sure enough, there was a group of attractive female seniors, the orange of their uniform doing nothing to detract from their beauty.   
  
Instantly Lance was enthralled, they were so enchanting, to have one around his arm would surely be the ideal? And here was a whole group free to impress!  
  
Just as he was about to go and introduce himself, a TA came to the table. He settled down his armful of books on the table and it was only then that Lance noticed who was holding them. The guy from the prospectus, Takashi Shirogane, and true to his earlier prediction those girls were practically drooling over him. He didn’t even seem that bothered, still piling out books and flipping through one, chuckling at the jokes they said that were so blatantly sexual they made even Lance’s ears turn red (and probably the rest of his face too).  
  
Didn’t he understand what they were saying? The jokes were a little insinuatory, not _obviously_ lewd, but close enough. Shirogane just seemed to brush it off.  
  
Maybe he was taken.  
  
It would make sense, a guy like that was practically textbook, he’d have a girlfriend - probably another TA - and then he’d be loyal to her, despite the many offerings and opportunities to get with others. He was the perfect kind of guy that wouldn’t cheat, like Lance himself, obviously.

—

Despite being a perfect kind of guy, there were some areas Lance struggled in, and after having his ass handed to him again by Professor Hedrick, the only option was to sulk dramatically on the rooftop, threaten to drop out, threaten to _“just, like, throw myself off or something”_ which Hunk rolled his eyes at and told him off for. So the third time was when Shirogane opened the door to the roof just as Lance kicked a loose stone chip off with his hands in his pockets.  
  
Shirogane seemed surprised to see them, some kind of troubled look on his face as he looked first to Lance and then Hunk, who was sitting and leaning against the wall to the stairwell. He seemed to compose himself, and Lance found his spine straightening automatically.  
  
‘Is everything okay cadets?’ He spoke in a voice that would make even his cousins sit to attention, and they were two and three. ‘The roof is technically out-of-bounds, you know.’  
  
He did know, but Lance thought considering his future at the Garrison (“sulking” as Hunk put it) should count as a very valid reason for being on the roof. Hunk stood up, trying to appease Shirogane with an explanation, and hearing his best friend explain to such a decorated hero exactly how he’d failed just curdled his stomach. He looked dramatically out into the sunset, doing his best to ignore the conversation happening about him.  
  
‘Is that true cadet? You’re having some trouble doing takeoffs successfully?’  
  
Lance nodded, looking again at the TA with his “kicked dog” face.  
  
‘I have some free time before curfew, I don’t mind running you through a few times on the sims?’  
  
One-to-one tuition with Takashi Shirogane? Lance was dramatic but he wasn’t an idiot, he jumped at the chance.  
  
And so he learned from (literally) the best. He watched as Shirogane started through pre-launch checks, wrote down the “tricks” he used to remember them and their order (which was ridiculously helpful, because Lance kept forgetting them and getting shit for it). He was vindicated when he complained about how sluggish cargo ships felt and how he hadn’t missed them - Lance had assumed Shirogane had only ever flown fighter class like _Kogane_ had - the sulky boy with bad hair he’d seen earlier in the library (who seemingly had the whole world handed to him on a silver platter, it turned out.) Finding out Shiro - _“You can call me Shiro out of hours, Sir feels too formal like this”_ \- had started as a cargo pilot, and struggled with the half formality of being a TA, really made Lance feel comfortable.

He was perfect. 

Too perfect.  
  
—  
  
The fourth time was when Lance decided to prove his hypothesis, that no man could be that perfect.  
  
He followed Shiro into the toilets after lunch, ignoring Hunk’s conspiratory _“isn’t that a little…”_ He stood a little closer than necessary.  
  
He shouted out in frustration. Shiro was truly the perfect man, the true hero. No part of him was flawed, and he wasn’t compensating with kindness for areas that he… lacked in.  
  
Lance could have cried.  
  
—  
  
The fifth time was, of course, when Takashi Shirogane crashed back to Earth from the dead.  
  
He’d been horrified when the Kerberos mission had been announced as a failure, when he’d found out that his hero didn’t make it through landing. Of course, he’d been to the Kerberos presentations, he’d not understood most of them but that was more because they weren’t demonstrated properly. But he knew enough about Kerberos’ rotational speeds, low gravity, and small size making landing a vessel extremely difficult. Which was why Shiro had been chosen at all, the best pilot, of course he’d be picked.  
  
That was why he was a teaching assistant at the Garrison in the first place.  
  
But Lance had been horrified, it didn’t mean he resented Shiro. If Shiro couldn’t land on Kerberos, then it was impossible - hands down.  
  
And then Shiro came back, the plot of the Garrison covering up the mission’s abduction was revealed, and so was the fact that Shiro had been taken, interrogated, experimented on, had his arm taken? And somehow managed to escape? It was incredible, no wonder he’d been chosen for the mission in the first place.  
  
He’d come back changed, bigger and more dangerous looking. And that new arm looked like it could crush a hand like aluminium foil, but he’d shaken hands and hadn’t been hurt. Shiro had also been a little colder seemingly, though perhaps it was Lance’s imagination. Mullet still hovered around him like a lost puppy. He was just lucky Shiro was patient, Lance wouldn’t have been able to deal with that kind of constant badgering. He was truly a hero.

—

Then there was the other time. 

When he’d been lost and roaming the lower levels of the Castle looking for an elevator. There had been the sound of muffled crying, and remembering how he’d nearly been ejected into space for following voices down abandoned corridors he proceeded slowly.   
  
But what he found as he peered around the corner wasn’t a hologram of a dead Altean king or rogue gladiator, it was Shiro. Shiro and Keith. And Shiro was the one crying.  
  
He sat curled up defensively between the wall and the floor, crying. A frantic almost hysterical sound, accompanied by distant wide-eyed staring and repeated tugging of his forelock. Keith kneeled in front of him and spoke in hushed tones, almost comforting, and Shiro was speaking too… but it didn’t sound like it was to anyone but his memories.  
  
Lance didn’t want to listen, didn’t want to intrude on his hero having a breakdown. But he’d seen the elevator behind them, and that was his only out. So he waited.  
  
Waited while Keith took off his jacket and draped it over Shiro’s shoulders. Waited while Keith took Shiro’s arm by the wrist and pulled it out of his hair. He waited while Keith made Shiro jump, touching his face and startling him with a _“you’re here, you’re safe, I’ve got you.”_ which made Shiro slump in defeat.  
  
He waited while Keith pulled Shiro’s head against his chest.

And when they’d left and Lance was able to leave, he couldn’t clear the memory of Shiro, Takashi Shirogane, curled in on himself and trapped in his own mind. He was sure he should feel anger at the Galra, positive he would feel it later, but for now, he could only feel guilt.

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, I know! And I'm free to be yelled at on [Tumblr!](https://marcellaereeves.tumblr.com)


End file.
